Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Near and Far Responders

You have Adele

You have Raging Beast

You have the silver chains

Name an effective attack method

Point Allocation (I Demonstrated One!)

●

…I feel like she chose an incredible time to fire there.

Adele was running down the path toward Honnouji.

She was out in front.

However, that didn’t mean she was running down the very center of the path. They had split into two groups – one primarily made up of the officers and the other led by the warriors – and the groups were running on either side of the 40m-wide path.

The officers were on the left and Adele was…

“Is Raging Beast’s pace good? I’m not holding everyone up, am I?”

“You’re doing fine, Vassal-dono! If we think of you as an automatic shield running out in front, you begin to sound very important!” said the Vice Chancellor.

“Yes, I do like the idea of a shield/hammer that can run on its own!” added the 5th Special Duty Officer.

“Hey, Adele, do you see now what it’s like to have your purpose in life shaken? Well?” said the Chancellor.

“Th-that last comment wasn’t necessary!”

But she and Raging Beast were effective as an emergency shelter. The Chancellor and the Vicereine would fit inside during the survival lockdown mode. And one more could fit too.

…Kimi-san could probably wedge herself inside with ease…

She had entered Raging Beast in normal mode during the exam, so she would have no trouble with survival mode.

Of course, Adele was only thinking about this because of the situation at Honnouji. Out-of-control ether was still being spewed high into the sky, but they had no idea what was going to happen. Furthermore…

“The wide-range barrier that blocked the Musashi’s main cannon appeared to cover the area around the light pillars too.”

Asama held up a sign frame and took some measurements, showing the situation wasn’t great.

If what she said was true…

“So even if we fired a Logismoi Oplo from here, it would get distributed like that?” asked Adele.

“Yes. Logismoi Oplo attacks are also an ether conversion, so I believe the same thing would happen given how much ether is powering that wide-range barrier. And it would affect the surrounding area when distributed, so we would be in danger too.”

“So if I were to fire one of my Logismoi Oplo here, it would be a super own goal?”

“Don’t do it! That means you shouldn’t do it, Horizon!”

The way the 5th Special Duty Officer said that sounded more like she was tempting the Vicereine into doing it, which seemed like a bad idea.

But then the Vice President asked a question while being carried by the Vice Chancellor.

“Is there a location from which we could fire the Logismoi Oplo?”

“There is no barrier at the very bottom of the pillars, so you could probably do it there,” said Mary. “The barrier is produced by the bottom part of the pillars, so you should within the barrier if you are on the ground below them.”

Asama nodded in agreement, but the idiot tilted his head.

“What if Asama shot one of her giant arrows?”

“The acceleration spells and such would be dispelled, so it wouldn’t work. I think speed, scale, and ether density are the triggers.”

Which meant the speed and scale of their class would work. But…

Smoking Girl: “A god of war probably wouldn’t make it through.”

“Would the Logismoi Oplo or Mary’s Ex. Collbrande work as physical attacks?”

“That wouldn’t trigger the speed condition, so it should be fine. Otherwise, the barrier would react when an attack struck and it would self-destruct.”

“In that case,” said the 6th Special Duty Officer.

Smoking Girl: “Explosion spells that primarily use a shockwave wouldn’t work. Incendiary spells are probably out because the buildings themselves have resistant protections.”

Tonbokiri: “Is it possible that kind of weapon has been registered as an exception?”

Novice: “That setting would have to affect the entire barrier, which would be a huge burden. And Tonbokiri is one thing since it was made in Mikawa, but I wonder how much they know about the Spare. Plus, each of the Logismoi Oplo have a different internal OS, right? I don’t see how they could do that without registering each of them individually.”

Uqui: “An oddly rational opinion coming from Neshinbara.”

Gold Mar: “If they get negated when fired either way, does it even matter how it’s done?”

Novice: “Th-that occurred to me mid-explanation, so well done, Naito-kun!”

At the very least, this killed time during their approach run.

Still, Adele wanted to speed up. The Vice Chancellor’s aide and Gin were working hard behind them. And up ahead, the P.A. Oda gunner unit had stopped sniping them in order to fall back and scatter to the sides.

The Musashi group simply ran along either side of the main path while keeping an eye on the woods.

They were expecting an ambush from the woods.

So Adele and the defenders were moving to hold the front and the sides bordering the woods.

The problem was how Honnouji’s main entrance gate was likely locked by a spell. But…

“Lord Akechi gave me Jibril.”

Asama ejected a spell sign frame containing a small wing icon. That was the word authority spell Akechi Mitsuhide had given them in the imperial palace.

…It was originally a wide-range acclimation defense against spells, right?

Adele realized the defense barrier around Honnouji was pretty much that. She decided to assume P.A. Oda or Akechi Mitsuhide had used that spell to create this defense barrier.

“I will hold onto this since it is a fairly high-level spell, but the usage rights belong to Toori-kun since he has Akechi Mitsuhide’s inherited name, so tell me when you need it.”

“Umm, what inherited names do I have again?”

“You had already inherited Salt, Pepper, and Sugar from the Blue Thunder. And last night, you added Turmeric and Cabbage.”

“I’m food now!? That’s a new one!”

“To give the actual answer, you have Lord Motonobu and Lord Akechi’s names,” said the 5th Special Duty Officer.

…Those are some really major names!

And that he had inherited them from people so much older than him was pretty new too. Since the Vice Chancellor hadn’t inherited her father’s name, he was the first second generation name inheritor in Class Plum.

Anyway, they could likely get through the front gate.

And even if Jibril didn’t unlock it…

“I’ll give it the old triple punch!”

That was where Noriki came in. Spell destruction was his specialty. Once they had identified the locking spell, he would be able to open the gate in three hits.

This will work, thought Adele. But at that exact moment…

…Eh?

A chill rushed in from the woods on either side.

No, a chilly wind was to be expected in the woods at night. But something was wrong here.

…I’m inside Raging Beast!

As soon as that occurred to her, she voiced a warning. She recognized this chill. She didn’t bother thinking why it would be here – she simply accepted the fact.

“It’s Maeda Toshiie’s Kaga Millionen Geist! Be careful!”

●

Asama hurriedly erected a barrier all around them.

“This will only keep the ghost warriors out, but it should help!”

She let Hanami handle the warriors to their right and clapped twice. Torii-style sign frames appeared over Raging Beast to the front and the warriors at the rear.

She wanted to use something more powerful, but that would have triggered the wide-range barrier. And if she was too slow, the enemy’s barrier would be drawn into her barrier.

“Here they come!”

Mitotsudaira noticed their scent more than their presence or movement.

Several pale forms stood up within the woods. Asama wasn’t going to say she was used to seeing this yet, but it was the third time after Magdeburg and Novgorod.

But something caught her attention aside from that.

“Wasn’t Maeda Toshiie at Shizugatake!?”

Even if he was coming here, he would have had to take a transport ship or high-speed ship. But…

Musashi: “No P.A. Oda or M.H.R.R. ships have approached within a 50km range of our present location. Of course, there are supply ships on patrol, but none have arrived within Honnouji’s grounds. Over.”

That’s odd, thought Asama. There must be a trick to this.

“Um, could it be the wide-range barrier we have been discussing?” Mary drew a circle in the sky as she ran. “That barrier enters the ground and covers a wide area along the ley line paths. The relay and long-range management is likely handled by a shrine, temple, cathedral, or church. Which would mean the barrier is linked to the geographic phase.”

●

“I know I was in a hurry because we are short on time, but I wasn’t the first one here, was I?”

Toshiie scattered silver coins on the ground with a bitter smile.

He was at a Shinto shrine. But it was located in the mountains and quite small. Its grounds only covered 10 square meters.

But while it was so small it lacked a main building, M.H.R.R. Catholic and Shinto lenern figurs were overlapping and slowly rotating in front of it.

Looking southeast, he could see the pillars of light past the forests and mountains. They looked a little thicker from here than from Shizugatake.

“Well, Na-chan? Is this reaching you? Or did you not need my support?”

“That idiot!”

“You’re hurting my ear, Ma-chan. And really, I might be the biggest idiot of them all. I left my upperclassman before his fight was over and now I can’t even meet with my friends in person. The Testament says I live a long life after this, but what’s the point of that life?

“But anyway,” he said, scattering silver coins. Pale hands repeatedly rose from the shrine ground to collect the coins before vanishing, but…

“Head straight there please. Make yourselves useful since I can’t, Landsknechte. Because if the Genesis Project is completed, these feelings I’m having will all be gone.”

●

“Toshi.”

Sassa stood in front of Honnouji’s main entrance.

In the distance, he could see the Musashi group split to the left and right as they approached.

They had emerged to the edge of the woods with perfect timing. They were in a hurry and once their target was in view, there was no point in hiding in the woods.

They could still be detected just fine inside the woods at this range. So this let them hurry as much as possible while staying close enough to the woods to hide if necessary.

But allies to Sassa’s side emerged from those woods.

“Is he remote-controlling the Kaga Millionen Geist and sending them via ley line transport? But I’m going to view this as a gift from Shibata-senpai at Shizugatake, Toshi.”

Just as he swung down his raised right hand, a roar raced from the woods. The ghost warriors weren’t alone. The large apes had been sent in too.

●

“Narumi.”

Narumi responded to the roar coming from the woods to her left and the high-speed sounds of something crashing through the trees.

“I know.”

She ejected her Unturning Centipede mobile shell behind her.

She let herself fall backwards so it could catch her and instantly transform her into something two sizes larger. Sign frames inside the head displayed the scene outside and one showed him raising his right hand.

“I will assist the warriors to the right. You should-”

“I’ll be fine on my own, Kiyonari. So you go do your thing.”

She eject-drew a pair of mandible swords from the air behind her. She wielded them in her hands as she spoke.

“Hurry onward, everyone. I can handle this on my own.”

As soon as she was done speaking, she launched herself into the woods.

A large ape was charging toward her, so she stabbed a mandible sword down its throat. A dull sound echoed through the woods and her enemy turned to ether light while she adjusted her targeting to the enemy with the greatest approach velocity.

●

Narumi had hoped to be fully prepared for this battle.

…But my combat prosthetics weren’t ready.

If a Komaoumaru-class opponent showed up, she could only hope for mutual destruction. And if Honnouji was destroyed like Mikawa afterwards, she would have a hard time returning alive.

Of course, she doubted he would let that happen, but it could still happen.

She wanted to avoid that.

So she focused on dealing with as many enemies as she could. She had gotten to know the ghost warriors in an unpleasant way at Novgorod. So she owed them.

They were innumerable. Large apes were already racing through the woods and the ghost warriors filled the space between the trees. But…

“Mandible sword ejection: 32.”

Narumi took aim at the rapidly-approaching large apes and launched mandible swords horizontally to the left and right.

These were not ejected from the hilts. They were directed toward the enemy, tip first.

They were being ejected, but this was how Unturning Centipede drew its swords. They weren’t given much speed. The enemy had greater mass and speed, so the swords would be knocked away if they made contact.

So Narumi added another force.

“Eject 16 arm pairs.”

Right and left arms were repeatedly ejected out from her shoulders. The Unturning Centipede arms grabbed the hilts of the ejected mandible swords.

“Sync.”

With that word, they all moved in unison. When she jabbed her own arms forward, the 32 metal arms thrust out the mandible swords with an identical motion.

She made a perfect counterattack against the large ape ghosts racing toward her.

Sounds of piercing and impact ran through the apes from mouth to rear. There were 32 of those series of sounds. Afterwards, she stored the mandible swords and arms in the air and moved forward herself.

Most of the major enemies had disappeared. That just left the ghost warriors, but…

…I wonder.

At Novgorod, the ghost warriors had transformed into the large apes and then into the colossal skeletons. But…

“––––––”

The scattering ether that had been the large apes started to bind back together before bursting apart again.

They did not recombine into something bigger.

…That must require too much ether compression.

The ghosts could not form colossal skeletons. That suggested that size was the threshold for ether density.

But the scattered ether did become ghost warriors once more.

Eight per ape.

It took ten warriors to create a large ape, so defeating a large ape reduced the number of warriors by two.

…Barely worth the effort.

While she assessed the situation, Narumi saw the 32 bluish-white ether sprays lighting up the forest. And overhead, Honnouji’s glowing pillars shined light down through the trees.

A lot like sunlight filtered through the leaves.

Narumi ran through that light in her mobile shell, working to break down the enemy formation as she drew her swords.

Unturning Centipede’s sensor system triggered a warning. A series of ether readings had appeared in the Honnouji buildings past the ghost warriors and beyond the woods.

It was an unusual reading, but one she recognized.

“Automata!”

Just as she confirmed 28 such readings, the ghost warriors all burst into ether.

The friendly fire hitting them from back to front was likely meant to induce the transformation into large apes. But the weapon being used was a problem.

…Anti-god-of-war rifles!

Those two-man rifles were used by Tres España and K.P.A. Italia. They were about 2m long with a cross-shaped design. The automata were holding them under their arms and aiming them this way.

At 5.1cm/38 caliber, shots fired with the full barrel were a lot like cannon blasts.

The 28 booms rang out after the fact.

After taking direct hits and being pierced through, the entire enemy group transformed into large apes.

And leading those apes, the bullets continued on toward Narumi.

●

Narumi did not hesitate to move forward. She held two of the blades she had ejected earlier.

She couldn’t eject that many again right away because the ether fuel hadn’t recharged yet.

But the enemy bullets were the biggest threat. Those anti-god-of-war armor piercing rounds could easily penetrate mobile shell armor. A mobile shell of Unturning Centipede’s class had a few countermeasures available, but Narumi knew a better method.

“Unturning Centipede.”

After preparing to move forward, she gave the instruction.

“Countless Hundreds of Paths.”

●

The automata were unable to track the enemy after she suddenly disappeared.

…Where did she go!?

The Date Vice Chancellor’s mobile shell could fly. But she was in the woods. If she tried to fly, she would hit the branches and leaves overhead and lose control.

“In that case,” said the commander automaton. “Perform visual scans from the front to the sides.”

The automaton on the outermost edge nodded her assent along with the others and turned her gaze past the woods and toward the front gate.

She should have been able to see through the trees and see the gate. But…

…Eh?

She couldn’t see it. There was only darkness there.

Only those who had turned around shared the same question in their shared memory.

They were in the woods. While it would be dark, hadn’t the ghost warriors produced ether light and hadn’t the glowing pillars been shining down through the leaves like sunshine?

But darkness had arrived. The darkness of the night had covered all else. A combination of slicing sounds and rustling leaves raced in from deeper in the forest. The approaching darkness was in fact…

“Is she felling all the trees to create her own cover!?”

As soon as the automaton asked that, something appeared to her right.

The dragon-like silhouette was colored green and red.

…Unturning Centipede!

Just as she sent that name into their shared memory, she saw the two full moons in the sky.

Her head had flown up into the night sky which was now uncovered by the felled trees.

●

Narumi ran.

Unturning Centipede’s Countless Hundreds of Paths repeatedly ejected legs and kicked them all forward while the torso portion moved rapidly along them.

The legs ejected out ahead could be seen like rails.

But she could also move the legs.

The rails didn’t need to form straight lines or corners. Depending on the strength with which she swung the legs, she could skid, hop upwards, or even perform something akin to a barrel roll.

Narumi generally accelerated straight ahead while using the tree trunks to turn corners.

She ejected the legs near the trunks and then used her speed to power a turn. But…

…My prosthetic legs inside here are too weak to rely on.

Inside the mobile shell, she was still using ordinary prosthetics. So as her speed increased, she had a harder time staying in control. If she screwed up, she could end up launching herself outwards like a highsider.

She had a solution.

By holding a mandible sword out a bit, she could hook the trunk with the reverse taper at the tip of the blade. That let her take the turn with her speed intact.

But it also instantly tore through and felled the tree.

However, that actually worked in her favor. When the tree fell, it blocked the enemy’s view and also interfered with the ghost warriors attempting to rise from the ground.

The large apes tried to form between the fallen trees, but had their movements restricted by the obstacles.

She only had to use the long reach of her mandible swords to split open their heads.

She needed to race through the woods too quickly for the automata to track her.

She could slalom all she liked. She was a centipede, after all. She didn’t even need to match her facing direction to the corners. The ejected legs would form the shape of the corner themselves.

This gave her great speed. She sometimes even made a rapid turn while facing backwards.

She shot past the automata.

They frantically swung their rifles around, but too slow.

She had already toppled the trees around them, including several that crashed down onto the automata. They tried to fire their anti-god-of-war rifles to knock away the falling trees, but it was no use. With the bottom missing, the trees were supported by the branches and leaves of the surrounding trees until they fell.

When the automata fired, the supporting branches absorbed the shock and, based on the principle of a pendulum, made the trees fall even harder. The meaningless gunfire was joined by the din of the darkness crashing down.

“Ah!”

The automata must have realized what was about to happen.

It was simple, really.

Narumi only had to race through the darkness as a centipede.

But as things were, she felt too much like a horror movie killer. One-sided slaughter wasn’t her style.

So she decided to speak to them. As she tore into and spun around the tree that would act as the final entrance, she turned around and gave a polite greeting before they could even turn her way.

“Good evening.”

With the niceties out of the way, now she could cut them down.

●

…Narumi isn’t exactly being stealthy.

While he worked at cutting down his enemy, Urquiaga noticed the forest on the other side was a lot shorter than it had been.

His method was a lot like Narumi’s.

“Inquisitor Set #574! Pilgrim travel tool: Holy Mother’s Chop!”

He produced a pair of machetes with the grips bearing carvings of the Holy Mother performing a horizontal karate chop. One had the chop delivered to the right and the other to the left. These were originally used to trek through the extreme environment of the fields and forests pilgrims had to travel in the Harmonic Divine States. They were quite sharp, but they were properly used by holding them horizontally and delivering a rapid flurry of attacks into the target. The force of the attack apparently increased if everyone applauded and cheered you on, but Urquiaga hadn’t tested that out himself. Besides, he was strong enough to fell a tree in a single blow.

He continued on.

He used the thrusters across his body to slalom between the trees. As he did so, he felled the trees and occasionally sliced through some ghost warriors or a large ape ghost like he was adding in a light dance step.

And after feeling the trees and creating darkness, he circled behind the automata.

“Are any of you an elder sister!?”

No, there was no point in asking. He already knew the answer. They likely had numbers, but the sounds coming from their frames were all identical. That meant they all ran on the same control OS and had thus been rolled out at the same time. Which meant none of them was an elder sister.

…Too bad. That leaves me only one judgment.

“You must be punished for the crime of lowering the world’s elder sister rate!”

●

Uqui-dono is really into this, thought Tenzou as he ran alongside Mary.

He had suggested holding her as he ran, but…

“You can do that if we need to leave in a hurry.”

When she said that with a smile, he could only nod his assent. She likely thought she could use Excalibur to help the fight on the way there.

That said, the battlefield was kind of falling apart.

The primary obstacle was the ghost warriors.

Most likely, Maeda Toshiie was somewhere near the forest. He was probably using the wide-range barrier to do it, but the ghosts were primarily emerging from the woods on either side.

The large apes were too dangerous an opponent, but Asama’s barrier was working well there. Since she had made it in a hurry, it could only temporarily stop the approaching ghost warriors, but that was far better than nothing. Also, when the large apes charged into Asama’s defense barrier, the power they felt on the very edge of the barrier confused them and they pushed in with less strength.

The geographic phase must have been different.

But once they dealt with that, they would be able to push the Musashi group back some.

In their race for Honnouji, being “pushed back” meant being pushed toward the center of the main path.

The path was likely used to transport supplies by land, so it was really a road paved with stone. There were drainage ditches on the edge of the woods at either side, so they would be able to move faster on the path.

Most of the enemies in the woods, especially the automaton snipers, had been eliminated already, so there would be little danger in using the path. Narumi and Urquiaga were doing fine on their own, so there really wasn’t much anyone else could do to help.

But the gunner unit that had fallen back earlier was back at Honnouji’s entrance and readying their rifles.

They were preparing to fire on the Musashi group once they were “pushed back” onto the central path.

Musashi couldn’t afford to stop their advance, so they would have to defend against the gunfire as they advanced. So…

“Mitotsudaira-dono!”

●

Mitsunari was commanding the gunner unit.

Originally, the automaton unit commanded by Ranmaru was meant to launch a pincer attack from the woods on either side. Toshiie had arrived in time, which had bolstered their attack.

The felling of the trees had hindered the ghost warriors’ mobility, but that wasn’t a real problem.

Mitsunari still had control of her gunner unit.

The form of Musashi’s charge was already being altered.

Awash in the light of Honnouji’s glowing pillars, they were charging in with a defense barrier out in front.

Even in enemy territory, they were in quite a hurry. But on the west side, where their officers were gathered, a round blue mobile shell led the charge.

Based on Mitsunari’s records, that mobile shell was sturdy enough to block a Tres España cannon. It was slow, but it was large enough to fully block the gunfire.

…Outdated technology is always so irritating.

It was Mitsunari’s identity as a cutting-edge data entity that made her think that way.

And just then…

“Oh?”

Something seemed off about her surroundings.

For just an instant, in the moment she paused to think, it seemed like the scene before her changed.

…But what changed?

Had she imagined it? She looked out ahead and saw the enemy charging in on either side of the path.

They were being pushed out from the woods a bit. And a lot of trees on either side had been felled.

But no new changes. She didn’t think anything differed from before.

Thinking she must have imagined it, she had the gunner unit take aim.

She decided to fire on the enemy officers rather than the warriors. Especially that one. That one was the enemy Chancellor who was performing a wiggling dance as he ran near the front of the group.

That one had the rights to Lord Akechi’s name, so defeating that one would probably solve a lot of problems.

So she had everyone’s targeting systems aim for that one just before she realized something.

“That one was there?”

Had she been able to see that one before?

No, she hadn’t noticed because the change was a little too obvious, but now she understood.

“Where did that mobile shell go!?”

That round blue one was missing, but now she was worried her vocabulary was suffering.

●

Mitsunari took a quick look around. The most likely possibilities was that the enemy’s main force had passed the mobile shell and it was now behind them, or that it had fallen, but…

…It isn’t there!

It wasn’t in the woods either. She checked behind herself and to the sides just in case, but there was no sign of it having circled behind her to go “looking for me?” and attack her.

…Then where is it!?

Then she noticed a movement up ahead. At the head of the group charging this way, the Mito Lord, who held the position of 5th Special Duty Officer, was raising something into the empty air.

She held her arms in something like a pitching form, but at a glance, she didn’t seem to be holding a ball, a sword, or a spear.

She held something else.

Those were chains.

The four chains reflected the light as they changed angle and stretched straight upwards.

Mitsunari looked up.

That round blue one hung in the night sky, silhouetted before the full moons.

Based on its physical movement and the tension in the chains, it was in the process of being swung down this way.

As Mitsunari watched, the speed at the end of the chains must have broken the sound barrier because an explosion of steam surrounded the mobile shell.

The sonic boom swung down from the sky.

And the Mito Lord raised her voice.

“Adeeeeeeeellllle…Hammmmerrrrrrrrrr!!”

After plenty of build up, the attack dropped rapidly toward Mitsunari.

There was no dodging this attack from overhead.

It was going to hit. Mitsunari could deal with the physical attack since she was a data entity, but the rookie gunner unit and a rookie defender unit were nearby. This attack would be very effective against them.

Narumi knew she had to do something as that round blue one approached so rapidly she imagined a nonexistent pressure bearing down on her.

A moment later, someone behind her jumped right over her head and out ahead.

The moonlit figure shouted toward the falling mobile shell.

“Lily Flower!”

●

Mitotsudaira realized the Adele Hammer had been knocked back like a comebacker.

She heard a metallic impact and then the Adele ball flew right back this way.

…Not bad!

She wouldn’t expect any less from one of P.A. Oda’s Five Great Peaks. She had no clue what he was doing here, but she would let that slide since she shouldn’t be here either. And she had a bit of time before the Adele ball arrived, so…

“…”

She tried escape to the left with a burst of speed and ran face-first into Kimi. The left side of her face slammed into a pair of large breasts, producing a light cracking sound from her neck. But…

“Oh, dear. Mitotsudaira, you wanted to experience the Giant Breasts Defense for yourself, didn’t you!? Then leap into them from the front this time! Open sesa-boobs! This cleavage contains a powerful defense barrier!”

“The Adele ball is coming!”

Kimi answered that protest by lifting Mitotsudaira around the waist and hopping onto the flying Adele ball with a light dance step.

And then…

“Ta-la-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta-tan, tan.”

She continued dancing in time with the Adele ball’s rotation. Her heels tapped loudly, her skirt fluttered in the moonlight, and she kicked hard at the back armor with her toe. Then she performed a midair flip while still holding Mitotsudaira.

Mitotsudaira saw the moons and the rising pillars of light rotating in her field of view. The Musashi entered from the left and everything returned to its familiar horizontal orientation as Kimi completed her flip.

After a nicely-balanced landing, Kimi lowered Mitotsudaira to the ground.

“Oh, dear. I set you down a fair bit back from where you started! You understand, don’t you, Mitotsudaira!? That was not the Giant Breasts Defense! It wasn’t! Bad, Mitotsudaira!”

“What are you even talking about!?”

Flat Vassal: “Hey, uh, how far am I going to fly!?”

The silver chains were just about extended to their full length, so Mitotsudaira gave them a yank.

There was some recoil, but it wasn’t so bad when she converted the motion into a rotation.

She swung the Adele ball around in something like the hammer throw, sending the Adele ball through the area of felled tree and crashing through some ghost warriors while she was at it.

“Time for throw two!”

●

While the Musashi warriors charged to the right of the path, they witnessed a superhuman Olympic hammer event being carried out between the other side of the path and Honnouji’s main entrance.

The second throw sent the hammer soaring at high speed, but…

“Lily Flowerrrr!”

When it was loudly knocked back, the wolf pulled the chains in close and gradually released them again while building up rotational acceleration. She had even more speed than before, so her heels produced sparks from the stone pavement.

“Throw three!”

One of the warriors commented on the rapidly flying mobile shell.

“I’m sure it’s been discussed it to death already…but does anyone even need to be in that thing?”

“It apparently needs ballast.”

“Ballast!?”

●

The ballast was gradually getting used to this. At first, she had been spun around and the counterattack blow had squashed her and also sent her snacks flying everywhere, making for a total disaster, but this much had already happened at the Kantou Liberation. The second time, she figured out how to open a gravitational control field inside the mobile shell to get by just fine as long as she knew the direction of rotation and when the counterattack was coming.

And the third time, a thought occurred to her.

…Can I do anything to make me more likely to hit that Five Great Peaks guy?

If she was simply a ball, then those two were playing catch with her. She wanted to advance beyond that.

So she thought about it. Yes, she was currently the ballast, but she was thinking ballast.

So she thought and acted on her thoughts.

“If I open up the tail ballast, it would probably make a big difference.”

●

Sassa thought the current pitch would make for a really good hit.

So he readied his fist, stood on one leg, and planted his foot firmly on the ground.

“Here goes, you assholes!”

“Um, Sassa-senpai, I feel like you are gradually losing sight of your purpose here!”

“Shut up! Who cares as long as it works out in the end!?”

The ball was coming and he was in a perfect pitcher’s form.

“Lily Flower!”

The ball suddenly stretched out its tail. It veered off course and didn’t even graze his right arm, but then it hit him.

●

…Got him!

Mitotsudaira saw Sassa Narimasa rotating end over end through the air before crashing into Honnouji’s main entrance, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

“You did it, Adele!”

Flat Vassal: “No, you did it, 5th Special Duty Officer! This couldn’t have happened without you throwing me so hard!”

Silver Wolf: “No, it was you and that last-second course change! All your experience as ballast has really paid off. The average ballast has nothing on you!”

Me: “Nice ballasting, Adele-senpai!”

Laborer: “Nice ballasting!”

Almost Everyone: “Nice ballasting!”

Flat Vassal: “Please stop that scattered applause! And find some other way to compliment me!”

The ballast was starting to complain.

But this had eliminated the Five Great Peaks member who was here for some reason. We did it, thought Mitotsudaira and started to think about getting a compliment from her king, but…

“Hey, what the hell!?”

An explosive blast rushed out from near Honnouji’s main entrance.

It was soon followed by the Adele ball.

…Huh?

Adele’s mobile shell had been lying a fair bit out ahead, but it was now flying in toward Mitotsudaira.

…Was it hit back at us!?

●

Mitotsudaira tried to dodge.

But the Adele ball was moving so much faster now. Almost like each hit was one-upping the last.

“Kh…”

She reflexively released the silver chains’ hold on the mobile shell. She chose to dodge. She considered using the four chains to to redirect the impact while catching the mobile shell as they bent, but she had decided that would force her to stand still for too long.

So she dodged with a burst of speed. She leaped left, but she ran face-first into Asama who was hurrying alongside her. The left side of her face slammed into a pair of large breasts, producing a lighter cracking sound from her neck than before. But…

“H-hey, Mito? What do you think you’re doing!? If you ask for more size now, my god is just going to tell you it can’t be done, so don’t bother!”

<Search: Method of increasing chest size at Honnouji. Response: Can’t be done. By, god.>

“The Adele ball is coming!”

The next thing she knew, Kimi had swept her feet out from under her from behind.

She lost her balance and had no choice but to topple backwards.

“–––––”

Once she was lying face up on the stone pavement, the Adele ball passed by so close it nearly grazed her.

…That was too close!

If she had had a large chest, that definitely would have killed her.

“Heh heh heh. Nice Flat Chest Evasion! It’s been a while since you showed that one off!”

“I nearly died!” shouted Mitotsudaira as she got up.

That was when she sensed a movement of the air.

And that wind carried in a faint scent of dirt.

“…”

She immediately gave herself a burst of speed to the right and an artillery-like fist slammed into the area she had just vacated.

She didn’t need to look back to know who had suddenly appeared there.

“Sassa Narimasa!”

The enemy had launched a high-speed assault on her.

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